Immortal Demon
by RyukoVulpix
Summary: On the night of Halloween, the holiday of ghosts and spirits, Shadow battles a far more malevolent demon... one that resides in his heart.


**Immortal Demon**

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_When darkness falls on the night of Halloween, it is said that spirits and spooks come out to play beneath the light of the stars and moon..._

Silently, amidst the rustling of countless trees and the heavy mists of the southern jungles, beneath a midnight sky, speckled with diamond stars, a shadow walked.

This was no child's trick-or-treating venture, certainly. For no people of the kind live in the deepest jungles, where only the wild creatures prowl in the darkness. No... all that live there are the ageless trees, the sprawling plant life, the untamed beasts... and, perhaps, a lost soul or two, venturing back to the world of life on the night of the celebration of the dead.

And among it all, a shadow walked.

In time, the sound of the footsteps changed from steps upon soft soil to steps treading upon hard stones... Stones laid long ago by a forgotten people, stones that remained while all else had changed around them. One by one, layer by layer, stones that had slowly been set to rise to the sky. And one by one, the figure advanced, deeper into the darkness of the ancient pyramid.

Into the temple, the shadow walked.

Water dripped into puddles on the ground, each tiny drop echoing through the forgotten halls, built by thousands of hands, thousands of years ago. So long, these walls had lasted! Through the years, through ages and _ages_ of countless storms, through so many deeds of nature wrought upon the forests, had these walls still persevered! For so long, the temple had witnessed the changes upon the planet... and for so long to come, it would continue to do so...

Just as the shadow would.

Just as the ageless

undying

eternal

immortal

Shadow would.

And it was a result of this immortality that had driven the shadow to the hidden temples.

Here, in the jungles, was where the key to his life was thought to have originated. Seven gems, far finer than anything dug from the ground... Seven colors, each resonating and complementing the others... Seven powers, each tied to a boundless source of energy.

Seven Chaos.

And it was the energy of the seven Chaos that was thought to keep this shadow above the ground, that was thought to be the one thing keeping him from

his beloved

Angel...

Finally, the shadow approached the chamber he had been seeking. Through a gap in the wall, the moon idly threw her beams of light upon a titanic image upon the stones... There, a monster, rising from the sea, certainly one to strike terror into the hearts of those who beheld it.

But the shadow was not afraid. No... for if nothing else, immortality results in a lack of fear of all danger...

... including death.

Perhaps, even, to an immortal...

... death is not something to be avoided...

... perhaps, to an immortal...

... death... is something... to be...

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'_If only I could see her face, just once more...'_

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Suddenly, a clatter on the stones startled the dark figure. Turning, hackles raised, a pair of red eyes scanned the empty hallway, but could find nothing. Surely, it had been the wind, an errant breeze overturning a pebble... After all, nearly everything echoed loudly in this dungeon. Without a world, the shadow turned back to his contemplation of the tale of the mural. Perhaps here, he would find a key to his immortality... a key to remove it.

Or, if nothing else, on this night of spirits and souls, the words of a forgotten lore would at least remove his mind from a topic that haunted him so...

But then! Another tap echoed against the stone floor. The shadow whirled about, and called into the darkness, "Who is there?" His resonant voice, belying his small stature, echoed through the blackness...

_Tap... tap..._ The shadow's ears pricked up, hearing the sound of footsteps against the floor. "Answer me! Who is there?" he called out once again. But no voice responded.

_On this night, the thirty-first of the tenth month, they say that spooks and spirits come out to play..._

Staring into the darkness, the shadow whispered one word...

"_... Maria...?"_

But no girl's voice answered... no beloved maiden appeared before the tormented shadow. Yet something was there, walking in the darkness. The shadow called out, "Who is there?" But only silence answered. Silence, and the heavy presence of something lurking in the corridor...

The shadow stood still, looking out into the emptiness. "But, surely," he said, "even _it_ will leave me... as others have before..." But even then, as the shadow stood pondering, the steady tapping of the creature's footsteps continued!

"Surely, it is not a spirit who haunts me," the shadow said aloud, "for spirits have no bodies with which to make such a sound. Tell me who it is who walks there, and let me leave you in peace! Or will you continue to disturb mine?"

_Tap, tap..._

"So..." the shadow sighed. "Even this will not let me be? A wild creature of the jungle, unable to speak when spoken to, will not leave me alone...?" The shadow turned to the darkness, a look of contempt on his face. "Hmph. Everything else has left me... or will, at any rate. Why will this creature not?"

_Tap, tap..._

The shadow's eyes glared into the darkness. "Such defiance," he growled. "Don't you know who I am? The ultimate life... created for a reason beyond my understanding... A life that will never fade!"

_Tap, tap..._

Suddenly, something in the shadow's mind began to burn. How could that creature stand to keep walking, as if its footsteps would continue...

_... forever...!_

The shadow's eyes flashed. "Do not tease me! Don't you think I've been tormented enough? And won't I be hurt enough in the future? I don't need you to add to the pain!

"_Eternity is nothing _but_ pain! I've lost her... I'll lose the others as well...!"_ In his fury, the shadow struck the wall, dislodging a few cracked stones. The stones crumbled and thudded to the ground, causing an earsplitting, echoing boom in the temple. But still...

_Tap, tap..._

Incessently, the sounds of the circling footsteps taunting him began to echo ever louder, the click of a monster's claws bouncing off of the stone walls. Continuing, continuing...!

"Demon!" shouted the shadow. "Black demon that haunts my mind! The shadow of my curse! Why do you continue to agonize me so? Why do you not disappear when I command you to? Why do you infest my thoughts with the cursed knowledge that I can never be happy?"

_Tap, tap..._

"I can never see her again! The stories are false! There is no healing in this world! There is no place where I can go to find her again!"

_Tap, tap...!_

"_I can never be happy again!"_

With one sudden movement, the shadow darted forward.

In one swift stroke, the footsteps stopped.

Silently, the shadow stood still, the warm dampness of the late intruder dropped upon the ground, talons splayed in a final strike. The shadow gritted his teeth together, the torment in his heart made no lighter through his reckless action. The guilty hand tightened into a red-stained fist.

For there was no way to kill the immortal, demon curse in his own soul.

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_When darkness falls on the night of Halloween, it is said that spirits and spooks come out to play beneath the light of the stars and moon..._

_Oh, what he would have given to join them!_


End file.
